Suffolk Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

Unlike the CML the Building Society Mortgage Instructions deal with this. Section A.12 states ‘In order to act on our behalf your firm or company must be a member of our conveyancing panel provided we are a society that operates one – see specific requirements for details of our arrangements. The Special Requirements state:

You must also comply with the terms and conditions of your Suffolk Building Society solicitor panel appointment.

This not something that the BSA would traditionally get involved with however they do organise numerous general legal related conferences which are attended by firms on the Suffolk Building Society conveyancing panel. We do intend to run specific lender focused seminars in the near future including a webinar on Suffolk Building Society’s requirements . Law firms on the Suffolk Building Society conveyancing panel will be invited . Further details will be made available as part of the LENDERmonitor Alerts .

We have not been informed any plans on the part of the BSA to promote such a search facility .

The fact of the matter is that estate agents will be feeling the pain if their clients start out on the conveyancing process having appointed a solicitor who is not on the panel with the purchaser’s chosen lender. Many conveyancing firms are only discovering when they begin working on a case that they are no longer able to work with that lender. Given the inevitable resultant delays in the transaction the chances of an abortive deal increases dramatically. in the circumstances there is understandable anguish on the part of the estate agent as a result of the lost time should the client have to change solicitors lawyers.

Participation on the lender's panel of conveyancers is at the absolute discretion of the the lender. The days of open panels are now long gone. Many lenders reserve the right to accept or reject any application without giving any reason. You should check your original application to join the Suffolk Building Society conveyancing panel to see if you are entitled to a reason.

With lenders and conveyancers working so closely together it is surprising that there has not been much call for the introduction of a bit of transparency regarding not just the figures for the Suffolk Building Society conveyancing panel but for all lender panel listings

BSA lenders do not come within the top 20 lenders in terms of frequency of questions. The most popular lender panels in terms of questions are as follows:

• Santander Conveyancing Panel
• National Westminster Bank Conveyancing Panel
• Royal Bank of Scotland Conveyancing Panel
• HSBC Conveyancing Panel
• Lloyds Conveyancing Panel